The archaeo-linguistics of migration

All the different processes of language spread and interaction described in this chapter involve an element of migration, and the different scenarios do have different linguistic ‘signatures’ which enable us to distinguish them in undocumented cases. These signatures are more clearly discernible where we can add archaeological and bio-genetic evidence to them. Spreads of language families often involve complex sequences of migration and language shift , but it is argued here that this is not random but displays a pattern, which is discussed under the heading of the ‘upstream-downstream’ model.